


"In January It's So Nice..."

by elementalv



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Weechesters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-27
Updated: 2010-02-27
Packaged: 2017-10-07 14:28:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/66033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elementalv/pseuds/elementalv
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean reads, Sam argues. Based on a line from 5x13, “The Song Remains The Same.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	"In January It's So Nice..."

“‘In January it’s so nice while slipping on the sliding ice to sip hot tomato soup with —’”

“Nuh-unh,” Sammy says.

“Shut up and let me read,” Dean tells him. “‘— to sip hot tomato soup with rice. Sip —’”

“Dean! It doesn’t say that!” Sammy tugs on Dean’s arm so he can point at the word in the book. “Tomato isn’t spelled like that.”

“What do you know? You can’t read.”

“Can too,” he says. “Tomato starts with a T and then a O and then a M and then a —”

Dean sighs heavily. “Yeah, okay. The book says chicken —”

“C and H make a ‘ch’ sound?” Sammy bites his lips as he thinks about it.

“Yeah, but that’s not the point.”

“What _is_ the point?” Sammy asks, like he’s eight years old instead of four, like he knows anywhere near as much as Dean does, even if he _did_ learn to read before he’s even set foot inside a school.

“The point is that in _our_ family, it’s _tomato_ soup with rice, not _chicken_ soup with rice.”

“How come?”

Sammy looks up at Dean with eyes that are way too big for his face, his cheeks still pink from a fever that only went away that morning. And Dean thinks back to when Mommy — Mom — was still alive, to when she used to hold him close if he didn’t feel good, to when she’d feed him tomato soup with rice, just like her mommy did when she was Dean’s age. There’s not much Dean remembers of those days, try as he might to hold onto it, but tomato soup with rice is one of those things. If they’d had any in the cupboard, he would have made it for Sammy to help him feel better, but they didn’t, and Dad said to make do.

Dean can’t say any of that, can’t explain to Sammy that changing a word in a book was the only way he could think of to “make do,” so instead, he tells him, “It just is, okay?”

It’s Sammy’s turn to sigh. “Okay.”

“Good.” Dean tugs Sammy a little closer and starts again. “‘In January it’s so nice while slipping on the sliding ice to sip hot tomato soup with —’”

**Author's Note:**

> The title and opening and closing lines are courtesy of Maurice Sendak’s “Chicken Soup With Rice”


End file.
